In the conference room, Su Jinyu and several other members of the Don't Starve project were brainstorming some fun about the game.

"Follow the manager's prompts, it's a survival game, right? Well, all the settings should be built around survival. ”

"The two most critical factors are the materials that support survival, and the negative factors that threaten survival."

"What kind of materials should there be, what kind of negative factors should there be? Think about the real world, temperature, climate, monsters, food...... These can all be game content. ”

That said, the core fun of the game is that the player controls the protagonist to survive in a completely unfamiliar world. He must explore the entire map to collect supplies and use them to combat the negative factors that threaten his survival. ”

"Well, considering this level, then the prototype of this game is already there, and this kernel is not bad, and it looks more fun."

"Then there's some specific design. The player needs certain values to intuitively feel his own state of existence. For example, the simplest example is health. ”

"When attacked by monsters, frozen, burned, etc., the player's health will drop, and when it drops to 0, they will die, and the game will end."

"What else is there? The name of the game is Don't Starve, and apparently the store manager wanted us to add hunger as a stat. The player has to hunt for food, and if they are hungry, they will also slowly reduce their health, perhaps movement speed, or something. ”

"It looks like the goal is clear."

"But there are still flaws, and I always feel that in addition to these two factors, there are shortcomings."

"Yes, there are not enough of them. For example, rain, snow, hail, and extreme heat will definitely have an impact on people in reality. But how does it manifest itself in the game? Bleeding when it rains? Or if it rains, you will be deducted from hunger? It feels very unreasonable. ”

"Moreover, if there are only two attributes, it will make people feel that this character is not a living person, but a dummy who only knows how to eat, drink and Lazar, and it will be very unassuming."

"yes, it seems that there should be another attribute......

Everyone was thinking about it, and Chen Mo came in.

"Add one more attribute, Spirit Value." Chen Mo said.

Su Jinyu's eyes lit up: "Spiritual value? Used to show the player's mental state? ”

Chen Mo nodded: "Yes, bad weather and some bad events will cause the player's spirit value to drop, and similarly, the spirit value can also be restored through some props." ”

"When the spirit level drops to 0, the character will fall into a state of mental breakdown, at which time he will start to hallucinate, the tone of the whole world will start to change, and some monsters similar to nightmares will start attacking him."

"If the player is able to defeat the Nightmare, they can regain a certain amount of Spirit. If the player is killed by a Nightmare, the game is over. ”

Su Jinyu thought for a moment: "This design is good!" In this way, the three attributes of hunger, health, and spirit can basically represent the state of the character well. Wow, the manager is still amazing. ”

Chen Mo smiled: "Actually, it's nothing, you can definitely come up with it if you think about it for a while, this is basically an inevitable design." ”

Su Jinyu said: "Store manager, you can also brainstorm with us, I pondered and found that the game "Don't Starve" really has a lot of interesting points, if you enrich the setting, it must be a great game!" ”

Chen Mo rolled his eyes: "Nonsense, if this game is boring, what will I let you do." Complete your homework independently, this game is for you to open up your minds, don't always expect me to teach you everything. ”

Su Jinyu pursed her lips: "Huh." ”

Chen Mo changed his words and said lightly: "Emperor Dynasty Mutual Entertainment is going to make a VR version of the "Dark" game. ”

Su Jinyu was stunned for a moment, and then said in surprise: "Huh? When? So what to do? Why aren't you in a hurry, manager? ”

Chen Mo leaned back in the chair: "What's the hurry, people are doing VR games, I'm in a hurry, and I can't do it now." ”

Su Jinyu hurriedly said: "Then what should I do?" The emperor entertained each other, these people are really, they know the idea of plagiarizing us! ”

Chen Mo motioned to her to calm down: "It's okay, you calm down first." It's hard to say whether the theme of "Diablo" can be changed to VR, and it is likely to take a lot of time to fill in the holes and pave the way, and it will take a year to make it at the earliest. ”

Su Jinyu said: "Then, store manager, let's hurry up and speed up, make a simple VR game in half a year to test the waters, and then change "Diablo" into a VR game in half a year!" ”

Chen Mo said speechlessly: "Thinking too much, even if you hit the chicken blood, you can't do it so quickly." It's okay, I'm telling you this to remind you that Don't Starve had to speed up a little faster, because I wanted to test the player's reaction with this game. ”

"I have a corresponding development plan for any games in the future, maybe just a little bit of adjustment in the order. It would be very unwise to disrupt our deployment now in order to entertain each other with the Imperial Dynasty. ”

"My plan is for Don't Starve to go live in 2 months, at the end of September. Of course, this is the initial version, and after it is launched, a lot of new content will be added according to player feedback, and various mods will be opened for players to play freely. ”

"Scythe of the Soul was developed in three months, with another two to three weeks for testing, which was launched in mid-November. After that, "Diablo" will be put on hold for the time being. ”

"By November, the feedback from players collected by Don't Starve was almost over, and everyone was free to prepare a VR game to compete with the new game of Imperial Dynasty Entertainment."

"Good!" Su Jinyu clapped her hands and said, "Then I will also speed up the progress here, and strive to make the DEMO of "Don't Starve" as soon as possible, and everyone will work together to work together." ”

Chen Mo nodded: "Well, but don't be too anxious, 2 months is very ample, you have to ensure the quality." ”

……

About Don't Starve this game.

Its success needs no need to be overstated, both in terms of sales and word-of-mouth, it is an indie game that can be written into a classic.

The reason why Chen Mo chose this game for everyone to practice is not only because of the fact that this game is suitable for divergent thinking, but also to test the acceptance of sandbox games by players in this world.

The so-called sandbox game is a game type that evolved from sandbox games, which often has a larger map, more elements, a high degree of freedom, and strong creativity. Creativity is at the heart of this type of gameplay, which allows players to create what they want from the objects provided in the game.

There are also some games with a high degree of freedom in this world, but in Chen Mo's opinion, they are not particularly successful sandbox games.